Gulfstream Aerospace delivered the first all-new Gulfstream G500 to a North American customer just shy of four years after the aircraft was announced in October 2014, having received both FAA type and production certificates in July. It enters service with proof of its performance capabilities and cabin comfort, from the Symmetry Flight Deck to Gulfstream's newest seat designs, thanks to the more than 5,000 hours flown by the G500 for company and FAA development, demonstration and certification testing.

The G500 also established more than 20 new city-pair speed records during a high speed world tour earlier this year that covered 44 cities and 18 countries on six continents. President Mark Burns says: “We're proud of the work we and our suppliers have done to deliver a technologically advanced, all-new, clean-sheet aircraft that exceeds our customers' expectations and continues the longstanding Gulfstream tradition of excellence.”

In time for the gearing up of the production process, the OEM has also acquired the NORDAM manufacturing line that produces nacelles for the Gulfstream G500 and Gulfstream G600. Gulfstream has been operating the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based line since early September as part of an agreement with NORDAM to address its July bankruptcy filing. NORDAM had been producing the nacelles for Gulfstream's G500 and G600 engine supplier, Pratt & Whitney Canada, and in September it was allowed to restart the manufacturing programme to provide for the eventual transfer of the programme's assets. The acquisition is now complete.

Burns says: “Gulfstream has a 60-year history of manufacturing and product excellence that will serve our customers well as we assume responsibility for nacelle production. The manufacturing of this component is firmly in our wheelhouse, especially since we also manufacture the wings and empennages for these aircraft.”

The G500 features a PW814GA engine while the G600 is powered by the PW815GA engine. Both the engines and nacelles have FAA and Transport Canada certification.

Alongside this the company has opened a sales and design centre in Midtown Manhattan. The nearly 8,500 sq ft (790 sqm) space features dynamic digital tools and thousands of material samples that aid the customisation and personalisation of every Gulfstream aircraft. A 20 ft (six metre) power wall offers digital design and aircraft cabin layout selection capabilities, and customers have access to real-time seat configurators paired with a physical seating display to see and feel seat architecture and comfort options. The facility also enables an external paint configurator, wireless streaming of Gulfstream-developed mobile applications and leading video conferencing technology.

Burns adds: “Establishing a customer-focused space in New York City, an international business hub, complements our significant worldwide footprint and better positions us to support our customers in Manhattan, whether they are based in the region or visiting from around the world.”

Last but not least, Gulfstream director, flight operations test Thomas Horne has been inducted as a fellow in The Society of Experimental Test Pilots, a move that reflects his extensive test pilot expertise as well as recognition by his peers in the society. He joins three other Gulfstream pilots, Gary Freeman, Kevin Prosser and the recently retired Harold 'Randy' Gaston, as fellows in the organisation.

Horne became a licensed pilot at 18, a licensed aircraft mechanic at 23, served as a flight test engineer and F-16 fighter pilot in the US Air Force and is a distinguished graduate of the US Air Force Test Pilot School. As an Air Force test pilot he performed F-16 flight testing and was a flight test squadron commander and test operations group commander before his retirement from the Air Force in 1997. He joined Gulfstream in 1997 as an experimental test pilot during the Gulfstream GV flight test programme, and later served as the project pilot for the PlaneView G550 flight deck before becoming a test pilot on the first flights of the Gulfstream G550 and the Gulfstream G650.